TOP LEFTIST LEADER RISKING RETURN TO EL SALVADOR

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- Ruben Zamora, a political leader of leftist guerrillas battling the U.S.-backed government, said Thursday he will return to El Salvador, making him the first rebel chief to try to work within the political system since the civil war began eight years ago.

"It is true I have made the decision to return to El Salvador before Nov. 7," Zamora said by telephone from Managua, Nicaragua, where he lives in exile. "We have been gradually developing our political presence in El Salvador the past two years and feel now is the time I returned."

Zamora, a bearded, balding lawyer, is the first high-level insurgent in the nation's 8-year-old civil war to announce his return to openly work within the political system.

He is vice president of the rebels' unarmed political wing, the Democratic Revolutionary Front, (FDR) and he is expected to participate in Oct. 4 peace talks between the government and insurgents.

Observers say Zamora could be killed, either by the far right, which hates him and killed his brother, or disgruntled factions on the far left who view him as a traitor. He also risks political failure.

"He will be standing on a razor's edge in the middle of a gale, trying to keep his balance with sharks on one side and wolves on the other," said one western European diplomat. "There are tremendous risks, but he understands that if you do not risk a return at some point, you have failed."

The talks will be conducted within the framework of a regional peace agreement signed by five Central American presidents on Aug. 7.

Zamora also is secretary-general of the FDR's Popular Social Christian Movement, a party formed in 1980 composed of Christian Democrats who, unlike Christian Democratic leader and now President Jose Napoleon Duarte, refused to ally with the military.

Duarte has said rebel leaders who want to return must renounce ties to the rebels' armed branch, the Marxist-led Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. He added they must renounce violence as a way to power and accept a government amnesty -- conditions Zamora said he was not willing to meet.

"It must be made clear that alliances are not under discussion here," Zamora said. "I am choosing to come back to work for a political solution to the nation's war, but the last thing I would do is be a traitor to my alliances. I am a Salvadoran, and my place now is in El Salvador as a politician."

Analysts and diplomats believe potential political benefits to Duarte will make it impossible for the government to block Zamora's return and one leader of the Christian Democrats said Duarte set harsh conditions to appease the military.

Duarte could point to Zamora's return as proof his "democratic revolution" is working and that there is room for all political parties.